A typical Electronic Article Surveillance (“EAS”) system in a retail setting may comprise a monitoring system and one or more security tags or labels attached to articles to be protected from unauthorized removal. The monitoring system establishes a surveillance zone (also referred to as an interrogation zone), usually at an access point for the controlled area. Articles which are authorized for removal from the area can be deactivated or removed so as not be detectable by the monitoring system. If the monitored item enters the surveillance zone with an active security tag, an alarm may be triggered to indicate possible unauthorized removal of the item.
As is known in the art, security tags (also referred to as labels) for EAS systems can be constructed in any number of configurations. The desired configuration of the tag or label is often dictated by the nature of the article to be protected. For example, an EAS label may be enclosed in a rigid housing which can be secured to the monitored item, such as hard tags containing EAS labels which are commonly attached to clothing in retail stores. For pre-packaged goods which are subject to retail theft, such as CDs, DVDs, small electronic devices, etc., an EAS label may be disposed within the packaging in such a way that it is hidden from the consumer at least during the pre-purchase period.
Some types of non-packaged consumer products which are sold in a retail setting have irregular shapes which are not readily adaptable for one-size-fits-all EAS tagging methods. Examples of such articles are golf clubs and a glass bottle having a tapered neck and a closure cap such as those which may contain wine or liquor. The products contained in the glass bottles can be expensive, and they are often displayed unprotected on retail shelves where they can be manually retrieved by a consumer for purchase. In such a setting, the bottles are vulnerable to shoplifting. It is therefore desirable to provide an inexpensive EAS security device which is adapted for attachment to a glass bottle or other cylinder-like object.
However, thieves continue to develop ways to attempt to circumvent these EAS security devices. For example, a circular security device designed to surround the neck of a bottle or other cylindrical object, may use strap and housing or other arrangement which thieves may be to easily compromise to defeat the security device. Previously, such tampering has been prevented by adding additional parts which act as barriers to restrict the passage of unauthorized objects from reaching the latch mechanism. However, the additional of further parts increases the cost of the device and causes problems with reliability.
Various potential solutions to this vulnerability problem include reducing the clearance/space between the strap and the housing (thus reducing the clearance available for someone to insert an object), increasing the amount of force required to raise a latch, and providing empty cavities in the plastic housing strategically placed to guide and act as traps. However, each of these potential solutions presents additional concerns. For example, reducing the size of the belt pathway and/or increasing the size of the belt increases friction and interferes with the effective operation of the device. Increasing the amount of force required to raise the latch also interferes with the proper operation of the device since this frequently prevents the device from being opened using authorized means. Additionally, placing cavity traps within the housing is only effective for certain insertion angles and can easily be defeated (e.g., after repeated attempts).
Therefore, what is needed is an EAS security device that is adaptable to fit bottles and other cylinder-like objects having varying diameter necks and provisioned with a tamper-resistant notch to prevent defeat.